Hussein Chalayan

I feel as though Chalayan's "Burka" is more a statement of art rather than fashion, with what we are presented with we are forced to think about what we are not physically seeing, ‘ideas such as modesty, identity and feminity’ the garments are not made to worn by the famous or the rich, it is more to provoke thought. The garments were made to challenge the normal thought of society about everything associated with Muslim culture, I think Chalayan is trying to use some shock treatment to his audience, as most people when confronted with nudity in public feel uncomfortable, so with all of these things together Chalayan has managed a very effective peice of controversial art.

"Afterwords" when presented to me, I felt that it spoke more as a fashion item. I can see Chalayan maybe used architecture as an inspiration, but at the same time I think fashion is more about the physical rather than the thought processes and meaning behind the physical, it is more about the "wow" factor, something that works with a models shape and figure and enhances it to draw people in visually. Chalayan's work "Afterwords" I feel is more about setting a trend rather than provoking thought.



I perceive art as something that is a physical representation of a subconscious thought or feeling. Whether it is used for advertising or not I feel does not play a role in the appreciation of the work itself, but can change the opinion towards the artist, some may see it as "selling out" from something smaller and more personal, but other people just see it as a way to make money. Personally I feel as though if an artist is approached by a company to create something for them is fine, I see it as a way of furthering their career and a way to make people take you more seriously as an artist, on the other hand having made work and selling it to a company I don't agree with. Having said that "the LEVEL tunnel" is a very effective piece of work 

"the concept was to give the visitor a full body experience of the LEVEL vodka brand. A 15 meter long glass tunnel, with laser sensor controlled sound, water, scent and light was created for the visitor to walk through blindfolded. This to enhance the other human senses"

The Scientific Revolution I think has played a role in Chalayan's work "Absenst Presence" as Chalayan is not looking at how we are all connected as people in terms of thought, feeling and experience he is turning to science to look at the way our DNA makes us different from each other, but at the same time looking at the similarities. I also think that Postmodernism is important as if we were living in another era, this idea could easily be abandoned.

I think that it is important to remember that all art comes from an idea, work comes from the mind of the "artist" but in certain areas there is the need for other people to help and collaborate in order for the quality and the strength of the peice to withstand time or have a larger effect on the auidence.  Sometimes artists can be so overly creative that they need to keep getting ideas out into the physical work, working towards the new. They need to have people care for their older work so that people that are not completely up to date with the art world can still go an appreciate it. Works like the one above by Andy Warhol was based around the idea of taking a famous face and use contrast of colours and repetition to lose the value of that face, and the ideas presented with that face. He created the idea but with the use of so much repetition theres no way he could move on to other ideas and still have to print all the works. So again I think its down to what is trying to be acheieved.





http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-LEVEL-Tunnel-(Absolut-Vodka-Hussein-Chalayan)/701114
http://ilikecatsmorethanpeople.blogspot.com/2010/11/hussein-chalayan-burka-1996.html